1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and more specifically to a method and apparatus for accessing resources. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for accessing resources using biometric data.
2. Description of the Related Art
A password is a word or string of characters that may be entered into a computer system to login or gain access to a resource. This password may often be entered along with a user name or some other identifier. Passwords are a popular form of authentication. In other words, passwords may be used to establish or confirm that someone is authentic or the appropriate user for a particular resource. To fully secure a resource, the password must be kept secret from others that are not allowed access to the resource.
Currently, a typical user may require passwords for many different resources. Passwords may be required to login to computer accounts, retrieve email from servers, and access files, databases, networks, web sites, spreadsheets, and other resources. A password does not need to be an actual word and may be instead, some random or personal selection of characters.
With all of the different resources that may be accessed using passwords, software has been developed to help a user manage these passwords. A software manager is an application that helps a user organize passwords. This type of software typically has a database that holds password data, such as passwords and other information used to access resources. A single password referred to as a master password may be used to initiate the process to access resources using the stored passwords. These types of applications may perform automatic login scripts to interact with various resources and activate those resources for use.
While password managers provide a convenient mechanism for storing and retrieving passwords, a compromise of the master password to these types of applications might render all of the stored passwords vulnerable. Further, if the user forgets the password, the user must then remember all the passwords stored by the password manager or reset the passwords to access the different resources.